Abdullah Almansour

Professor Dutta
April 8, 14
Second Draft Literacy ethnography:
My first experience with reading was at kindergarten at the age of 5 or
so. I remember after I have learned how to read single words. I started to
read every sign and ad I saw in the steet. My cousins and I used to
challenge each other on our way back font]L school, who can read more
and how can pronounce it properly. My older cousin who is 3 years older
then me was the
judge.
Apparently because he was older he already has a
good ability in reading so him being not only the
judge,
but also he taught
us and correct us whenever we pronounce it wrongly.
Afteryouple of years lw{tnryroved my skills in reading. My
parents bought me some kids stories, and magazines. Those Magazine s
714/ne
had helped me out a lot especially at writing and drawing. This magazine
was published eveqy month. I waited eager$ for it. It also had a drawing
compelilipn. Apd then after yo,, d{* a picture we senf,it through the
;d it oL
maif-and waiffor the next month to get the results. They had three
winners but also left two tull pages of the pictures;;;;;;;t*/r
ent.w1 ,
My drawing was really bad. My younger brother was better tfr* ,*. f
didn't feel any competition with him but instead I felt that I have to
encourage4And furally, one day he got his drawing in those two pages
where they shared some of the kids' drawings. We were so happy at that
time that he made it that far and accomplished his goal even though it
wasn't thatbig,ffiy.tgia gave frinrpoost to do better next time. That
)t'At
a/t/\7tdtx
wu-t-
c
r#f
feeling you have when you finish your
job,
do well in you finals and get
good grades, is the key to rnake you keep up the good work.
At the age of 11, my father bought us a Computer. I started learning a
'l'WtA
lot of things form it, my first time uslgg the Internet and set up my own e-
mail. E"; gcf" t r*rrfr#.fiffir
new video games and footbalt
matches. Also not to forget I had a PlayStation since I was 8 that helped
me a lot improving my English language. Through the games I played,
mostly all of them were in English, but sorne were in Japanese. Along
with the school, my English started to improve more and more. At school
I was placed In advance English class. From elementary to high school,
English was the best subject I had and my grades were so good. Unlike
the Math and science. Going back to the video games tW.I remember
since I was kid. When we played a new video galne. We gathered{$Y
brothers, my cousins, all of us, I used to show off my English skills. I
could understand many of what the character, *.GfrilYUout and what
is happening there. They questioned me some timeslhel, Abdullahrwhat
do they mean by that and this ana tfratf'hven--my
older cousins who are 3
ffi: IH ;ffi:;l-1"TH;:,H:il il'X:-#:,::',
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^
d4.{7
direction.
,!
1rrilN
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fuan's
c*ry{
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My Brother whose is 3 years younger than me had an amazing ability
in writing stories. At the age of 9, he wrote 10 pages story about a kid
whose keen in football and how he rnanaged to improve his ability and
become a professional soccer player. Obviously, he was referring to
himself indire.ctly and drawing the future he would like to have maybe. I
fifrnWtt-l)
tried to ffiliii"ffiim to ler me read his story and help him with it. But he
refused. My father Whose an engineer, is a greet wri{er. Writinf$his
favorite hobby. He wrote his first article at the age of 12 and it was
published in a loeal new$paper. He almost kept record of every article he
wrote. Also I remember he had some old lwiting by my grandfather'
After that my mother suggested to go every 2 weeks to the English library
in my fathers work. The company he is working in is the world l't oil
producer. It's called ARAMC
lerabian
Amerioan Oil Company).
The
main location was Dhahran at the east cost. Only 15 midfrom the city I
lived in
(Dalrrmam). That campus was so enormous. It almost covered 2
third of the whole city of Dhahran. No one enters it only the employees of
the company and their family's. When
you go inside, It's like a small
American town. That was only the main location. They had others also.
Back to my poi.rt,'i! that campus they had that big library, it is dividdinto
several
parts.One were forthe children- Aodrytty
now and then. The design of that room was so amazing, I had some
chances to talk to American kids butmost of the time I was shy and kept
company along my brothers. I had that Idea in my head that if I made one
mistake they will laugh at me. So I ditched that idea. Neverttreless,
I
leamed a lot of from the books@rented from there. And Also my parents
encouraged me by offering me a deal,
o'
if you finished a book every book
you rented and understand it well, we will buy
you as new video game'
One for
you and one forpryour brother" That motivate me to eagerly wait
eyery two weeks to visit the library and grab a new book. Unfortunately,
,-)
It wasn't that easy so after a while I stopped renting English booksand ,{"''
went back to the magazine
I had. Yeah I forgot, it name was
o'Majid"
if I
am not mistaken.
At the age of 12, I remember my first story. I wrote it along
with my
brothers, and then we used the PowerPoint to draw some
picture and
move them using the slideshow as a presentation to help visualize the
story more. I didn't stop at making story. Then I had a new idea, which
I
was to make a contest. Ipet of questions started about soccer.
f,tlggng:L
U* -
/
aeepty. I thoughl6bout bringing up what I study from school and make a
'tur7{a-t'*-
11
'
-
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\
set of questions to compete along with my friends. That hqfffie,with my
, J- u+uM
)smdies,
it was like having a group study. Each time one'6s #itTihtce a
i,subSect
and make a set of questions. And then *. ordPo*rti-nt to
.
,
?
animate the whole thing to make it more atftactive .
z
59
d4'*
'
involved in literacy, which will impact your look at u tp"#r#lir:.
li
important factar/thatplays a big role in any child life.
\r
Yang's case,
several factors influenced him inside and outside home. When he started
school in Canada, his main barrier was his limited English-language
ability. For example if you had difficulties in a specific subject at school
and your teacher wasn't helpful or worse ffioHing you in front of
your classmate? Eyqntualty yorl will hate the subject and maybqthe worse
case scenario,is
(ffi,r.
*rr^*at happened to me atihe midltr,oot. r
think I was
l6t*
years old when I had that sfict Arabic teacher. He was
tough and very solid, even thoughf he had a good teaching ability's. but I
couldn't get along with him. He scoldeftlvery student in the class.
He gave us so much hornework and was so harsh at grading. m*iinftat
made *.frutdtn* Arabic subiect have.